The disclosure relates generally to a wireless distribution system (WDS), and more particularly to techniques for optimizing system resources utilization within the WDS, such as a distributed antenna system (DAS), as an example.
Wireless customers are increasingly demanding digital data services, such as streaming video signals. At the same time, some wireless customers use their wireless communication devices in areas that are poorly serviced by conventional cellular networks, such as inside certain buildings or areas where there is little cellular coverage. One response to the intersection of these two concerns has been the use of a WDS. WDSs include remote units configured to receive and transmit communications signals to client devices within the antenna range of the remote units. WDSs can be particularly useful when deployed inside buildings or other indoor environments where the wireless communication devices may not otherwise be able to effectively receive radio frequency (RF) signals from a source.
In this regard, FIG. 1 illustrates distribution of communications services to remote coverage areas 100(1)-100(N) of a WDS 102, wherein ‘N’ is the number of remote coverage areas. These communications services can include cellular services, wireless services, such as RF identification (RFID) tracking, Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi), local area network (LAN), and wireless LAN (WLAN), wireless solutions (Bluetooth, Wi-Fi Global Positioning System (GPS) signal-based, and others) for location-based services, and combinations thereof, as examples. The remote coverage areas 100(1)-100(N) may be remotely located. In this regard, the remote coverage areas 100(1)-100(N) are created by and centered on remote units 104(1)-104(N) connected to a head-end equipment (HEE) 106 (e.g., a head-end controller, a head-end unit, or a central unit). The HEE 106 may be communicatively coupled to a signal source 108, for example, a base transceiver station (BTS) or a baseband unit (BBU). In this regard, the HEE 106 receives downlink communications signals 110D from the signal source 108 to be distributed to the remote units 104(1)-104(N). The remote units 104(1)-104(N) are configured to receive the downlink communications signals 110D from the HEE 106 over a communications medium 112 to be distributed to the respective remote coverage areas 100(1)-100(N) of the remote units 104(1)-104(N). In a non-limiting example, the communications medium 112 may be a wired communications medium, a wireless communications medium, or an optical fiber-based communications medium. Each of the remote units 104(1)-104(N) may include an RF transmitter/receiver (not shown) and a respective antenna 114(1)-114(N) operably connected to the RF transmitter/receiver to wirelessly distribute the communications services to client devices 116 within the respective remote coverage areas 100(1)-100(N). The remote units 104(1)-104(N) are also configured to receive uplink communications signals 110U from the client devices 116 in the respective remote coverage areas 100(1)-100(N) to be distributed to the signal source 108. The size of each of the remote coverage areas 100(1)-100(N) is determined by amount of RF power transmitted by the respective remote units 104(1)-104(N), receiver sensitivity, antenna gain, and RF environment, as well as by RF transmitter/receiver sensitivity of the client devices 116. The client devices 116 usually have a fixed maximum RF receiver sensitivity, so that the above-mentioned properties of the remote units 104(1)-104(N) mainly determine the size of the respective remote coverage areas 100(1)-100(N).
With reference to FIG. 1, the HEE 106 includes electronic processing devices, for example field-programmable gate array (FPGA), digital signal processor (DSP), and/or central processing unit (CPU), for processing the downlink communications signals 110D and the uplink communications signals 110U. Likewise, each of the remote units 104(1)-104(N) also employs electronic processing devices for processing the downlink communications signals 110D and the uplink communications signals 110U. Further, the communications medium 112 is only able to carry the downlink communications signals 110D and the uplink communications signals 110U up to a maximum bandwidth. Collectively, the processing capabilities of the electronic processing devices in the HEE 106, the processing capabilities of the electronic processing devices in the remote units 104(1)-104(N), and the maximum bandwidth of the communications medium 112 provide the system resources available in the WDS 102. It may be desirable to utilize the system resources in the WDS 102 to improve overall performance of the WDS 102.
No admission is made that any reference cited herein constitutes prior art. Applicant expressly reserves the right to challenge the accuracy and pertinency of any cited documents.